Roadendsmig: (last three selections and write up kindly submitted by Vincent Vega)

This is a write-up on behalf of Roadendsmig who picked eight of the players in the tea, with me picking the last three. I think the team is a strong one and well balanced, especially when you consider three of the players picked were done so after everyone else had settled on their teams.

The players picked by me (with some input from Jose Jones for the spinner) were Ravi Shastri, Geoff Lawson and EAS Prasanna, with Roanedsmig picking the other eight.

The team has gerat balance with a good strong batting line-up and excellent bowling options with three fast bowlers to utilise the new ball, a specialist spinner, an all rounder who was a more than decent spin bowler and a batsman who has an excellent test record of taking wickets with spin in Jayasuriya.

The batting starts off brilliantly with the attacking Trescothing and Jayasuriya to start the innings off, these two are capable of taking a game away from the opposition very quickly if they can get in. You then have India's legendary batsman and team captain Gavaskar with an average of over 50. The middle order is also capable of some very big scores if needed with Vengsarkar, Laxman and Shastri. The tail can also wag a little with the last four averaging almost 60 runs between them.

The team has a specialist wicketkeeper which I always prefer over a batsman converted to wicketkeeper because the team needs the runs lower down. Smith was an excellent 'keeper and a not too shabby batsman.

The bowlers may not have as many wickets as some of the more recent players but that has more to do with the amount of cricket played in the modern age than ability. Malcolm Marshall was my favourite of the West Indies fearsome four when I was a kid, a staggeringly fast, aggressive bowler, who can forget what he did to Mike Gatting's face:

Jeff Thomson was another who was extremely fast and was one of the first I remember to regularly bowl over 90mph, a player who always gave his all. Geoff Lawson another quality Australian bowler from the 1970's had a tremendous test record and both Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh said he had a great influence on how they went about captaining their Aussie teams.

E. A. S. Prasanna was before my time and I don't know a great deal about him, but his test record is very good when you look at the figures, and obviously I wasn't spoilt for choice when it came to spinners and I was picking last (I wasn't going for Robert ****ing Croft). If you add in the spin of both Shastri and Jayasuriya, there is certainly more than enough there to give most sides a going over.

I firmly believe this side could make big runs and comfortably take 20 wickets and believe Roadendsmig picked very well, it is a shame he wasn't able to finish the team off himself. Also thanks to Jose Jones for his contribution, and to Champ for allowing me to pick up Roadendsmig's team and complete the picks.

Delighted with my side. In choosing it I decided to rely on memory rather than searching for stats but it seems my memory is pretty good.

Gooch (one of the true greatest batsmen of all time) and Gambhir is a wonderful opening pair and the strength in the batting line up is something to behold. Bat all day long this team, Jonty Rhodes batting at nine should tell you something.

I'll confess that the batting is the strongest forte of my side but let's look at the attack.
A five pronged attack of Khan, Jones (would have been one of the greats if not for injury, great swing) the deadly accurate Malinga and the spin offered by Vettori and Al Hasan would give any side nightmares in any conditions.

Add to the mix the quite wonderful wicketkeeper that is Alan Knott and the finest fielder I ever saw in Jonty Rhodes and this side is special.

Plus, this side contains three GENUINE all rounders in the imperious Khan, Daniel Vettori and the magnificent Shakib Al Hasan.

A truly great side that will take on all comers.

Fowlers God: (write up not received in time – I have submitted his line up in what I would guess the batting line up / captain and wicket keeper would be)

Pretty impressive I am sure you will agree when you consider 4 of the players are still playing. In the field you have great fieldsman in Jayawardene, Botham and arguably the best wicketkeeper to have played in Gilchrist. I picked players in an era I actually saw rather than rely on just the stats. So this makes them probably the youngest team in the draft and therefore the likeliest to win if all the team played each other now. I could have picked from 5 Test Captains, not even including ODI captain's Stuart Broad & Abdul Qadir. Experience and youth, what a bastard.

Leading the line I have the dogged, resolute patience of Atherton and Sri Lanka's greatest ever Batsman. Jayawardene has been at the crease both times the highest ever Test score has been scored and with Murali, has the highest ever combination of bowled and caught by an outfield player - c Jayawardene B Muralitharan. Next in is the wristy stroke-playing Azharuddin, who I picked despite having a bastard of a name to spell.

I surely have the most destructive, match-winning middle order in the draft with dominant KP followed by 2 of the greatest ever all rounders in the game; Gilchrist & Botham all score aggressively and fast, taking the game away from teams in a blink.

Up front I have a deep line up with 5 bowlers, leading with the best Bowler in the world over the past 3-4 years Dale Steyn, Botham who took over 300 wickets, "Yellow" Chris Martin, Broad who is a future England great and Pakistan's greatest ever spin bowler.

My team is filled with ****s and you need a bit of that. Boasting a match fixer, the least likable England player ever, a Tory and Coldplay lead singer the opposition will be wild with hatred and not play their normal game. I mean look what KP is banging:

Maybe there are too many England players, but when you consider they are 4 of the top 10 England players as rated by me, who else can boast that? Exactly.

I have one of the best known talents in the history of the game opening for me in Barry Richards. Such as shame he couldn’t play more, but he is regarded as one of the best and his average was 72.57, now I’m sure that would have gone down over time, but it just shows what a class act he was as all his matches were against Australia and he delivered in similar vein throughout his first class career and in the all-star matches. Alongside him I have Shane Watson, who is an aggressive opening batsman and has a good average at 37.54, not the best in the draft but it is still good for an opener facing the new ball all the time.

The middle order has to be one of the strongest in the draft with the flamboyant and specialist number 3 Richie Richardson (5,949 runs at 44.39), Inzaman-ul-Haq ( 8,830 runs at 49.60), Kumar Sangakkara (9,872 runs – 11th highest ever, at 56.73) who is also the current number 1 in the ICC rankings, third in amount of double centuries made in the history of the game and Carl Hooper (5,762 runs at 36.46).

After that I still have two recognised batsman who can get runs at 7 and 8, both of which are extremely aggressive and can take the game away from the opposition in a session. Kapil Dev (5,248 runs at 31.05) who would often get India back into the game by leading the fight back to teams. Shahid Afridi will come in at 8 (although he could be put up the order if needed for a quick burst) and by that stage runs should not be an issue and he can just have a hit and score quickly, which he can do scoring the fastest century in ODI cricket for example, but he has a good test record himself (1,716 runs at 36.51) – he is my luxury player in the team and having two of the best all-rounder’s the game has ever seen in Dev and Sangakkara, it enables the side to have that luxury! Afridi is at 8 because I feel Dev is more likely to dig in for the side if it was in trouble.

The averages of the other batsman are Roberts (14.94), Khan (12.18.) and Macgill (9.69).

Overall I don’t think there are many (if any) better batting line ups. One of the best openers in the draft, arguably the best middle order and number 7 and 8 – very happy with that, I doubt opposition bowlers would agree!

Bowling

I have four main bowlers and then a few part timers who would bowl in certain conditions.

The new ball would usually go to Kapil Dev (434 wickets – 6th highest of all time, at 29.64) and Zaheer Khan (291 wickets at 32.06). They are fast swing bowlers and a right hand / left hand combination to test batsman more with different angles. If it is swinging conditions these two will exploit it! But both being Indian they are used to lifeless pitches and aren’t totally reliant on swing and their control is equally important and impressive.

Although Andy Roberts (202 wickets at 25.61) might be disgruntled at not getting the new ball, I’d have him as the next option, although he’d get a chance to bowl when the ‘lacquer’ has gone off the ball which could benefit him with more swing. Roberts was part of that West Indian quartet of bowlers in the mid-70s to early 80s, according to Iran Khan - he was the fastest and most terrifying bowler he ever faced. Roberts would be the change as he had more tools in his armoury, as he had more pace, an off cutter, leg cutter, in swinger and out swinger, a slow and a fast bouncer. All of these deliveries under great control.

All three of them could reverse swing the ball and on a flat wicket with not much life in it that could be really important.

The other main bowler is Stuart MacGill, the leg spinner (208 wickets at 29.02) who is the unluckiest bowler ever in my opinion. Unlucky because he was backup and in the shadow of Shane Warne and had he played in nearly any other era or team at the time he would have had significantly more wickets and appreciation. MacGill was a big turner of the ball. After Warne and Muralitharan had been picked he was my first choice spinner.

The other bowling options I have, who will be used in the right conditions, are Shane Watson (59 wickets at 28.91) and he is fast-medium, which gives the pace bowlers slightly more variation being slightly slower. On a pitch that is offering nothing to the spinners (although Macgill is one of few who can spin the ball on all pitches), then he could be a good fourth choice pace option.
I also have two other spinners for a spinner friendly pitch and conditions. One is Carl Hooper (114 wickets at 49.42) with his slow off-break and the other being Shahid Afridi, with leg spin (48 wickets at 35.60).

Overall I think between Dev, Khan, Roberts, Macgill and Watson, Hooper and Afridi there is all the qualities and options needed to get 20 wickets on any surface and against any side.

I’d have Inzaman-Ul-Haq (81 catches) and Carol Hooper at slips (115 catches), with Richie Richardson (90 catches) in the more mobile position of point or gully, depending on the field. So players capable of taking the catches!

Conclusion

I think my side has one of (if not the strongest) batting orders. Also one of (if not the strongest) bowling attacks, variety and wicket takers in the draft competition. Add to that arguably the greatest ever Test wicket keeper batsman and one of the best spinners the game has produced after the obvious two geniuses already mentioned.

This side needs a big man to lead them and there aren’t many bigger men than Inzaman-ul-Haq to do that job (the fat bastard!). Actually I don’t think this team does need a big man to captain it, I just wanting to call Inzaman fat, I think this side would need very little captaining as the runs and wickets would take care of themselves. The side should have no problem with runs, no problem with getting wickets in all conditions and you don’t need much else to win Test Matches in my opinion.

When I first picked my team, I wanted a really strong middle order with batsmen who could chip in with some overs aswell as a top class opening partnership that on its day would be nearly unstoppable.

At the top of the order I’ve gone for a Tillakaratne Dilshan and David Gower. Both of these are regarded as two of the finest openers to ever play the game. Between them, they have played just under 200 test matches between them; they have scored over 13000 runs and 32 centuries. They are capable of seeing off the new ball against any attack the game has ever seen and they are sure to give a team an excellent platform to build on.

And the task to build on this platform has been handed to Steve Waugh and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. Both have been without question two of the greatest middle order batsmen over the past 20 years. Both average over 50 and both have over 10000 runs each at test level. Waugh has played the most test matches for Australia ever (168!) and was captain over the golden period in Australian cricket and was in my opinion the most successful captain ever as he led Australia to a world record 15 of 16 straight test wins.

Next up is my spin bowler Danish Kaneira and Moin Khan, both of whom were stalwarts in the Pakistan side during the late 90’s and Moin used to be on the end of the wicket taking googly’s that Danish was.

Above Kaneria but below Moin in the batting line up is actually everybody’s favourite cricketer Mitchell Johnson. A fairly latecomer to test cricket, Mitchell burst onto the scene during a tour in South Africa where he took 16 wickets and scored 250 in 3 tests showing that he can make the tail wag aswell as prove a difficult task for any batsmen to deal with.

Finally, my two main fast bowlers are Graham Dilley and the great Dennis Lillie. Lillie was one of the most feared fast bowlers of his time and his lethal bouncers had many a batsman in trouble which is emphasised by his 355 test wickets. His ability to bat down the order is emphasised by his 3 half centuries which yet again adds to the depth of my batting line up. And although he had a great partnership with Geoff Thompson, I believe that Graham Dilley’s swing bowling from the other end with the new ball could prove just as troubling.

Roadendsmig's team is just frightening. Although, I would prefer to Gavaskar opening the batting with one of Trescothick with Sanath at number three. Gavaskar is one of the best openers of all time. So, He should definitely open the innings. Also, The left-right opening combo. The bowling is brilliant as well. Marshall and Thommo sharing the new ball with Lawson as the first change. Then you have Sanath, Shastri and Prasanna as the spinners. Great team. Probably the best out of all the teams I have seen till now.

King Emlyn's side is decent but it is way too imbalanced. That batting order makes no sense at all. With Botham in there, Remmie didn't need one more seamer. He should have gone for an opener instead of Martin/Harmison. RobbieOR should have swapped Gower and Wessells.

Your side (LFD) is very good as well even though I feel Watson and Afridi aren't that good in tests. Otherwise your batting and bowling is very good. You have one of the greatest ever openers in Barry Richards. A middle order of Richardson, Inzy, Sanga, Hooper and Moin is great. Kapil offers you depth in the batting as well. Roberts, Kapil, Zak, Macgill, Watson and Hooper is a good bowling attack.

Afridi is just a luxury player and was my last pick. I didn't need another batsman, I had all my main bowlers. I thought he could just be someone who could bowl a few overs if needed and could accelerate the innings when time is short.

Watson was my second last selection, I needed an opener and there were very few left. I'd hope the rest of the batting should make up for him.

Afridi is just a luxury player and was my last pick. I didn't need another batsman, I had all my main bowlers. I thought he could just be someone who could bowl a few overs if needed and could accelerate the innings when time is short.

Watson was my second last selection, I needed an opener and there were very few left. I'd hope the rest of the batting should make up for him.

Roadendsmig - top bowling attack but struggles a bit in the middle order. Smith at #7 and Shastri in general seems to be pushing it. Other than that, solid effort.

King Emlyn - Fast bowling attack would require copius amounts of morphine to keep them playing. Spin attack has two good allrounders that amount to average bowlers, both of whom are slow left-armers. Batting order makes as much sense as a Rorschach. Next.

Fowlers God - The sheer balls-out insanity of picking so many bowlers, and one of them being Jason Krezja, would probably make me like this team, but it also has Mathew Hayden in it to ruin all the fun. Nope.

Remmie - I like this side. Still one too many bowlers, Harmison should definitely make room for another batsman, but it has some flair to it. Maybe worth a novelty vote.

LFD - Yeah, I could see this working. Afridi a bit of a waste of space but hey, let's work with what we have. I've finally been admitting to myself lately that Watson is a decent player, so this is the first non-comical batting lineup. Attack's good too.

RobbieOR - No idea where you got the impression Gower was an opener from. Or that Dilshan was one of the best ever, but if we put that down to poetic liscence this is is probably the best batting side yet. Bowling attack leaves something to be desired, though, with Lillee the only bowler to be much better than okay at Test level. Further, there's no excuse for the lack of cropping on those screenshots.

Under that basis I will plump for Roadendsmig, but would say this group is considerably weaker than the first.

Roadendsmig - top bowling attack but struggles a bit in the middle order. Smith at #7 and Shastri in general seems to be pushing it. Other than that, solid effort.

King Emlyn - Fast bowling attack would require copius amounts of morphine to keep them playing. Spin attack has two good allrounders that amount to average bowlers, both of whom are slow left-armers. Batting order makes as much sense as a Rorschach. Next.

Fowlers God - The sheer balls-out insanity of picking so many bowlers, and one of them being Jason Krezja, would probably make me like this team, but it also has Mathew Hayden in it to ruin all the fun. Nope.

Remmie - I like this side. Still one too many bowlers, Harmison should definitely make room for another batsman, but it has some flair to it. Maybe worth a novelty vote.

LFD - Yeah, I could see this working. Afridi a bit of a waste of space but hey, let's work with what we have. I've finally been admitting to myself lately that Watson is a decent player, so this is the first non-comical batting lineup. Attack's good too.

RobbieOR - No idea where you got the impression Gower was an opener from. Or that Dilshan was one of the best ever, but if we put that down to poetic liscence this is is probably the best batting side yet. Bowling attack leaves something to be desired, though, with Lillee the only bowler to be much better than okay at Test level. Further, there's no excuse for the lack of cropping on those screenshots.

Under that basis I will plump for Roadendsmig, but would say this group is considerably weaker than the first.

Good review, except at the end when you don't go for my team! haha

Afridi has an average of 37 with the bat, so not such a waste of space - especiallly as he is selected to just give it a bash with the rest of the batting strong.

Originally Posted by Prince EWS

You blokes and the weird batting orders, I swear. Half the field picks up three or four openers, the other half picks up none.

Now now, no need for the snide comments, this is a cricket forum - the forum this is from is a football forum, so you would expect the knowledge to be better on here! That's why I posted them on here to get some neutral opinions from cricket fans,